“Lost”: Still more Web vids and fresh pics

Call it a post-holiday treat. More "Lost" goodies have shown up on ABC.com, and at long last, some fresh images from the new season have been posted on ABC’s press site. No obvious spoilers, natch, but intriguing all the same.

ABC.com has posted a longer trailer for season four, which bows Jan. 31 with a two-hour opening salvo. The trailer drops some big hints and makes it very clear that the cavalry that Jack, Kate et al think are coming for them are not on their side. (Ben may be rotten to the core but he’s usually truthful in his malevolence.)

There’s also a very good eight-minute "Lost" series recap vid that just popped up. It’s a good primer for anyone who hasn’t been infected with island fever yet, and it’s a nice refresher course even for us maniacs. After all, this show has laid a lotta story threads during the past three and a half years. In parts the recap vid plays like a "Saturday Night Live" parody of a "Lost" recap vid, but on the whole it works really well.

Once again, the only bittersweet part of indulging in all the pre-premiere hype is knowing that A) "Lost" gurus Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are, like every other WGA member, on strike against the studio and thus not eager to help ABC/ABC Studios prosper on the back of their labors; and B) barring a significant, immediate breakthrough in the WGA-major studios standoff, we’re going to get eight or so episodes in and wham! by late March-early April, our run of fresh segs will be cut off artificially by the real-world drama that has engulfed this town. Even Jacob couldn’t have plotted a scenario this cruel.